I

103D CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 5261

To require the Secretary of State to establish a set of voluntary guidelines

to promote socially responsible business practices for United States businesses operating in foreign countries.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OCTOBER 7, 1994

Mr. EVANS (for himself, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. BROWN of California, Mr. CONYERS, and Mr. DEFAZIO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

A BILL

To require the Secretary of State to establish a set of voluntary guidelines to promote socially responsible business

practices for United States businesses operating in foreign countries.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

4 The Congress finds that—

5 (1) in the 1990s and beyond, capital, tech6 nology, and services are and will be easily trans7 ferred anywhere in the world without due regard for

8 national boundaries and governmental policies, espe-
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1 cially those pertaining to fundamental labor, envi2 ronmental, and agricultural standards;

3 (2) multinational corporations now play a major

4 role in the conduct of international trade and invest5 ment among all nations, yet multinational corpora6 tions are not accountable in important ways to any

7 national governments or international organizations

8 and are not bound by any universal international

9 agreements or standards of conduct;

10 (3) increasingly, multinational corporations are

11 crucial agents of commerce and investment between

12 developed and developing countries, wielding great

13 influence over whatever national standards exist in

14 respective countries pertaining to socially responsible

15 investment;

16 (4) some multinational corporations, including

17 some based in the United States, have adopted vol18 untary codes of conduct governing all aspects of

19 their operations with a view toward promoting so20 cially responsible investment; and

21 (5) there already exist some promising prece22 dents of corporate codes of conduct for multinational

23 corporations which, if widely adhered to and en24 forced, could facilitate socially responsible business

25 operations worldwide and reduce pressures to en-
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1 hance competitiveness by ignoring fundamental

2 labor, environmental, and agricultural standards

3 where they exist.

4 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF GUIDELINES.

5 (a) RESPONSIBILITY OF SECRETARY OF STATE.—

6 The Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary

7 of Labor, the Secretary of Commerce, the heads of appro8 priate Federal departments and agencies, labor represent9 atives, representatives of businesses with operations

10 abroad, and appropriate nonprofit organizations, shall es11 tablish guidelines which United States nationals should

12 use in conducting business operations anywhere in the ter13 ritory of any foreign country.

14 (b) CONTENTS OF GUIDELINES.—The guidelines es15 tablished under subsection (a) shall, at a minimum, be

16 based on the principles contained in the following:

17 (1) The ‘‘Guidelines for Multinational Enter18 prises’’ of the Organization for Economic Coopera19 tion and Development.

20 (2) The ‘‘Tripartite Declaration of Principles

21 Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social

22 Policy’’ of the International Labor Organization.

23 (3) The child labor standards established by the

24 International Labor Organization.
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1 (4) The standards regarding prison labor that

2 are contained in Article XX of the General Agree3 ment on Tariffs and Trade.

4 (5) The so-called ‘‘MacBride Principles’’, ‘‘Sul5 livan Principles’’, and ‘‘Slepak Principles’’.

6 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The guidelines established

7 under subsection (a) shall be published in the Federal

8 Register and shall take effect 6 months after the date of

9 the enactment of this Act.

10 SEC. 3. COMPLIANCE.

11 (a) SUBMISSION OF STATEMENTS.—Not later than 1

12 year after the effective date described in section 2(c), and

13 not later than the end of each 1-year period thereafter,

14 each United States national that conducts business oper15 ations, directly or through a foreign subsidiary or contrac16 tor, in any foreign country shall submit a statement to

17 the Secretary of State, in such form as the Secretary of

18 State shall prescribe, indicating whether or not such na19 tional, in conducting such business operations, is comply20 ing with the guidelines.

21 (b) REGISTRATION.—

22 (1) REQUIREMENT.—The Secretary of State

23 shall require United States nationals subject to the

24 requirement of subsection (a) to file with the Sec25 retary a registration with respect to their business
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1 operations in foreign countries. Such registration

2 shall include the name of the business operations in

3 each foreign country, and the location and chief offi4 cers of such business operations. No fee shall be re5 quired for registration under this subsection.

6 (2) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The registration re7 quirement of paragraph (1) shall take effect 6

8 months after the date of the enactment of this Act.

9 (c) HEARINGS.—The Secretary of State shall conduct

10 public hearings at least once each year on the compliance

11 with the guidelines of United States nationals subject to

12 the requirement of subsection (a). The Secretary shall pro13 vide interested persons with an opportunity to testify at

14 such hearings.

15 (d) ANNUAL REPORT.—The Secretary of State shall

16 submit a report to the Congress describing the level of

17 compliance with the guidelines by United States nationals

18 subject to the requirement of subsection (a). This report

19 shall be submitted not later than 18 months after the date

20 of the enactment of this Act and not later than the end

21 of each 1-year period occurring thereafter.

22 SEC. 4. EXPORT MARKETING SUPPORT.

23 (a) SUPPORT.—Departments and agencies of the

24 United States may only intercede with a foreign govern25 ment or foreign national regarding export marketing activ-
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1 ity in a foreign country on behalf of a United States na2 tional subject to the requirement of section 3(a) if that

3 United States national complies with the guidelines.

4 (b) TYPE OF CONTACT.—The term ‘‘intercede with

5 a foreign government or foreign national’’ includes any

6 contact by an officer or employee of the United States with

7 officials of any foreign government or foreign national in8 volving or contemplating any effort to assist in selling a

9 good, service, or technology in a foreign country. Such

10 term does not include multilateral or bilateral government11 to-government trade negotiations intended to resolve trade

12 issues which may affect United States nationals who do

13 not comply with the guidelines.

14 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Subsection (a) shall take ef15 fect 18 months after the date of the enactment of this

16 Act.

17 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

18 For purposes of this Act—

19 (1) the terms ‘‘comply with the guidelines’’,

20 ‘‘complying with the guidelines’’ and ‘‘compliance

21 with the guidelines’’ mean—

22 (A) implementing the guidelines estab23 lished under section 2(a) by taking good faith

24 measures with respect to each such guideline;

25 and
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1 (B) reporting accurately to the Depart2 ment of State on the measures taken to imple3 ment those principles;

4 (2) the term ‘‘business operations’’ refers to a

5 for-profit activity which employs more than 25 indi6 viduals or has assets greater than $25,000; and

7 (3) the term ‘‘United States national’’ means—

8 (A) a citizen or national of the United

9 States or a permanent resident of the United

10 States; and

11 (B) a corporation, partnership, and other

12 business association organized under the laws

13 of the United States, any State or territory

14 thereof, the District of Columbia, the Common15 wealth of Puerto Rico, or the Commonwealth of

16 the Northern Mariana Islands.

17 SEC. 6. REGULATIONS.

18 The Secretary of State may issue such regulations

19 as are necessary to carry out this Act.

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